History Film / ThePeopleVsLarryFlynt

* CompositeCharacter: Edward Norton plays a character named Alan Isaacman, after the lawyer who defended Flynt before the Supreme Court. This character essentially stands in for ''all'' the legal assistants Flynt had employed. For instance, he is depicted being wounded in the 1978 shooting attack on Flynt; that event happened to Gene Reeves, Jr.
* CourtroomAntics: Larry offers plenty of courtroom antics, including going to the courtroom with the American flag as a diaper! It later gets to be too much, though, and no decent self-respecting law, judge or court is willing to take on his case.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Not "bad" exactly but Larry never lets his unashamed sleaziness and opportunism get in the way of being a loving son who who cares deeply about his parents and eagerly uses his wealth to provide for them. A deleted scene even had him show them he had an exact replica of the house he grew up in built in his new mansion because he never wanted to forget where he came from.

* GargleBlaster: Larry's home brewed moonshine.

** After he come back from his drugged up stupor in 1982, Larry fires the vice president in charge of marketing who was telling him about President UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and Jerry Falwell's [[MoralGuardians Moral Majority]] and how it had shifted their business plan.

* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: The movie version of Flynt is considerably more attractive than the real life version ever was.

* ItsNotPornItsArt: Oddly enough this argument is never made specifically, it is simply discussed that although disgusting it should be allowed under the freedom of speech clause.

-->'''Larry:''' Your honor, you have not made one intelligent decision during the course of this trial and I don't expect one now: knock yourself out.
* KavorkaMan: Larry. While he's not unattractive, he's an unashamed sleazebag whose accident and subsequent self-imposed isolation makes him nearly impossible to be around. Nonetheless, he never has an issue attracting beautiful women, even well before he becomes a millionaire.
* LittleNo: Larry's response to being asked to take an oath in court. It's leads to a BigNo from the judge wondering why and Larry explains that as an atheist, an oath to God means nothing to him. The judge just shakes his head and asks him to affirm instead, which Larry agrees to.
* LoopholeAbuse: Ain't no rule that says Larry can't post bail by having two hookers bring garbage bags full of cash into a courtroom. The judge has the money accepted, but specifically warns Flynt that he expects future payments to be handled through the usual cashier's check.
* UsefulNotes/LosAngeles: "I oughta move somewhere, where perverts are welcome." AnswerCut to the Hollywood sign, being prominently featured, as this might also be seen as BitingTheHandHumor.
* MagazineDecay: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] InUniverse. Apparently takes over every time Larry goes to jail, as well as during his brief conversion to evangelical Christianity, and when he comes back after five years of isolation after getting shot.
* MoneyFetish: Hinted at: Althea as she totals his sales figures and then requests that Larry take off his pants, explaining that she's never fucked a millionaire before. On the one hand, they were a couple before he made that much money; on the other, it's only after he's rich that she offers up marriage as a possibility. On a third hand, Larry is initially surprised - because he thinks she's suggesting monogamy, which both agree is very much not on the cards.

* NaughtyNuns: After being put in a Catholic orphanage after her father killed his wife then himself, Althea, as in real life, claims she was forced to sexually pleasure the nuns running it.

-->'''Larry''':"I turned the whole world into a tabloid!"

* NouveauRiche: Althea plays this trope up when Larry and her have dinner with Ruth Carter Stapleton.
* OffToSeeTheWizard: Althea suggests a feature of The Scarecrow, The Tin Man and The Cowardly Lion [=gangbanging=] Dorothy.
* PayingInCoins: Flynt paid a $10,000 contempt-of-court fine by having two hookers bring garbage bags full of one dollar bills into the courtroom.
* {{Prison}}: The setting a few times as Larry is ok with getting sent there to prove his points about Freedom of Speech.
* {{Polyamory}}: When Althea asks Larry if they can get married, he initially rejects the idea but then Althea lets him know that it's ok if they get married but aren't monogamous, at which point he agrees.

* RagsToRiches: Larry grows up in poverty, selling moonshine to make money for his family, and later becomes an enormously wealthy entreprenuer.

* ReallyDeadMontage: At the very end, the camera pans through the home and over paintings of Althea, with her ghostly laughter echoing through the rooms, until we see Larry watching films of her.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Alan finally has had it with Larry and lets him have it about how his irreverent behaviour has isolated him from decent people and for expecting the legal system to come to his aid while never showing it any respect. [[spoiler:It hits hard enough for Larry to give a proper defense on freedom.]]

* AnythingThatMoves: Althea possibly.

* BigBrotherMentor: Larry to Jimmy Flynt.

* HollywoodDrowning: Averted.

* VersusTitle

* DoomedByCanon: Althea, since {{Canon}} here is RealLife.

The film begins with him as a young boy selling moonshine to hillbillies and ends with him hearing about the outcome of his Supreme Court case. Along the way, the virtues and downsides of organized religion, pornography, capitalism and free speech are explored. It is the second of screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski's trilogy of {{Biopic}}s of "anti-Great Men," after ''Film/EdWood'' and before ''Film/ManOnTheMoon'', about Creator/AndyKaufman.

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: According to ''[[AllThereInTheManual The Shooting Script]]'', when the RealLife Larry Flynt found out about the movie, he met with the writers to go over the script as it was at that point. His objections qualified for this.

* IdeaBulb: According to ''The Shooting Script,'' the scene where Larry figures out the best way to photograph a woman's vagina was meant by the writers, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, as a parody of the traditional biopic "lightbulb-over-the-head" moment.

* CoitusEnsues: The foursome in the hot tub.

* CourtroomAntic: Larry offers plenty of this, including going to the courtroom with the American flag as a diaper! It later gets to be too much, though, and no decent self-respecting law, judge or court is willing to take on his case.

* LoopholeAbuse: Ain't no rule that says Larry can't post bail by having two hookers bring a garbage bag full of cash into a courtroom. The judge has the money accepted, but specifically warns Flynt that he expects future payments to be handled through the usual cashier's checks.

* NaughtyNuns: After being put in a Catholic orphanage after her father killed himself and his wife, Althea, as in real life, claims she was forced to sexually pleasure the nuns running it.

* PayingInCoins: Flynt paid a $10,000 contempt-of-court fine by having two hookers bring a garbage bag full of one dollar bills into the courtroom.

* KavorkaMan: Larry.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Alan finally has had it with Larry and lets him have it about how his irreverent behaviour has isolated him from decent people. [[spoiler:It hits hard enough for Larry to give a proper defense on freedom.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue makes a point of noting some of the less-than-savoury aspects of Larry's self-righteous political and MoralGuardian opponents.

* UsefulNotes/LosAngeles: "I oughta move somewhere, where perverts are welcome." Cue his moving to LA. Since the Hollywood sign is prominently featured, this might also be seen as BitingTheHandHumor.